


An Unorthodox Method Of Sharing A Future

by humane



Series: Skywalking Through The Galaxy- Kylux [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, He remained Ben Solo, M/M, Snoke did not manipulate Kylo, The farce is strong with this one, pre-emperor hux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 23:34:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6446686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humane/pseuds/humane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU in which soulmates are signified by the act of sharing: sharing a meal, sharing a memory, sharing a regret or a mutual resolve. Ben is a reluctant jedi knight abundant in power and lacking in principle, Hux is a newly-promoted general harassed by duty. For some reason, they share dreams.</p><p> Or: Ben is a confused and belligerent Cupid and Hux is an overworked Psyche who doesn't so much fall asleep as lapse into an involuntary state of half-consciousness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unorthodox Method Of Sharing A Future

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hollycomb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollycomb/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Our Fragile Co-commandership](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5836177) by [llyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/llyn/pseuds/llyn). 



> This is a written thank you to hollycomb for writing the Children, Wake Up series, also known as that characterization-setter that makes you feel like anything that strays too far from it is OOC. It's more like a scene out of the au verse I've been thinking of, inspired by the way hollycomb and llyn(author of Our Fragile Co-Commandership) used the concept of shared dreams in their writing. Hope you enjoy <33

 

In reality, his superiors have faces. Individual, distinguishable faces, creased in disapproval or blank with control as the mouths speak equally blank words of commendation. But in his dreams, in that uncomfortably vague realm that Hux has frustratingly little control over, authority is a shroud of faceless, voiceless pressure that observes him silently from every angle. Hux is not particularly bothered by this. He is the one that aspires to be one of those shrouds one day, after all, ever-present, powerful without having to utter a word.

 What he is bothered by is when a foreign presence slams into his mind one night, projects  _Annoyed_ like a holler to his face, and swats away pretty much everything cluttering his subconsciousness.

  _You_ , it says, with the utmost grump and petulance, and disappears, leaving Hux to muddle out of his sleep in confusion. His eyelids stick together when he forces them open to stare at the ceiling. He lets himself be deeply unsettled by this experience for ten seconds before he stumbles out of bed, drinks down three cups of water, and resolves himself into thinking no more about it, as he does with all distractions.

 

 It's during the second night that Hux suddenly realizes that this has been going on for longer than he's previously been aware of. He assigns a name to this event, fished out of the murkier depths of his memory, and calls out viciously:  _Ben._

 The prodding, loitering presence in his mind snaps to attention. Hux is faintly aware of himself baring his teeth outside of the dream, tensing beneath the blankets.

  _Uh_ , says Ben, somewhat guiltily, and attempts to erase himself from Hux's mind like a snake trying to eat its tail. Which is apparently what he's been doing for the past indeterminate number of nights.

 Hux slaps away this endeavor and reaches out to snag Ben's metaphorical sleeve as he flees, the edge of his thoughts trailing behind him like the hem of a heavy hooded robe.  _Jedi._  Ben is already gone when Hux recovers from the shock, leaving him, once again, to help himself to copious amounts of warm water while glaring murderously at the far wall and trying to will some slackness back into his limbs.

 

 Hux arranges himself on his bed on the third night with the sort of determination usually reserved for battle tactics and starkiller blueprints. The seething vehemence with which he throws himself at the objective of sleep doesn't exactly help him get any closer to achieving said objective of sleep. He lies there, tense and immobile, perfectly alert, and naturally doesn't manage a blink of sleep before the alarm goes off twice and he has to get up before one of the terrified new lieutenants come knocking at his door.

 

 More of the same happens during the fourth night. In his defense, Hux is a determined man, and his determination sometimes fails to understand the concept of relaxation.

 

 There is no fifth night, however. There is a fifth afternoon, around which Hux is shooed off to his room by a small army of medbey officers who offer him a choice between a voluntary nap and a sedative dart. Hux has the suspicion that one of them did stick a needle in him without him noticing, because he barely makes it to the bed before he collapses into an undignified sprawl and instantly blacks out.

 The glob of moving darkness now labeled as  _Ben_ and  _jedi_ stirs awake beside Hux. They are on a bed, though Hux is reasonably sure it isn't the one that his body is currently sleeping on. Ben rolls over onto Hux before he can feel out the details in the dark, startling him with his boldness.

  _So you remembered,_  Ben says sullenly. And then Hux feels the thought, doubtlessly from Ben's mind, leak into his own:  _should've known. He's growing more resilient._

Hux is abruptly furious. He shoves the stifling weight off himself, fingers scrabbling against what is either a neck or a bicep.

  _You fucker,_  he shouts into the dream,  _why did you- why-_

 That he has nothing left of Ben in his memory but his name and the sense that he is an enemy of the First Order is somehow unbearable. Hux knows he used to have more. He also knows, inexplicably, that it was Ben who took the rest from him; the knowledge stings like a betrayal.

  _You asked for it, general,_  Ben says unflinchingly, and Hux realizes that Ben is just as angry as he is. The emotion is a bright flare that illuminates the dream for a moment, and Hux catches sight of moles flecked across a pale face, of hunched shoulders and a mop of dark hair.  _You wanted me to disappear, you didn't want to know my name._

Hux's hands have somehow placed themselves on the warm planes of Ben's back, drawing him onto Hux again. It is a familiar back. It is the back of Ben Solo, first generation knight of the Jedi Order fostered by Luke Skywalker. Hux remembers from the file on Ben he has on his datapad. It had such uncomfortable words like  _the Resistance_ in it,  _son of Leia Organa, directly apprenticed by Luke Skywalker,_ and now- Hux thinks hysterically- it will have  _the_ Half  _of General Hux of the First Order, who is in immediate danger of hyperventilating himself to death, which would be the most embarrassing body count ever added to the history of-_

 There is that mental swatting again. The panic clears from Hux's mind, but this time what he senses from Ben is not annoyance, but concern.

 Concern, and the beginnings of resignation.

  _I apologize for not keeping to our agreement,_ Ben says formally, making no move to unbury his nose from Hux's shoulder.  _This will not happen again. I will dream my own dreams. You will have your rest, and will never see me again._

 The darkness seems to constrict around them both. Hux is breathless, suddenly, and afraid. He is afraid that this man on the other side of the galaxy will be the end of everything he has in the First Order. He is also absolutely terrified that Ben would vanish without a trace and leave Hux to continue with said everything forever, any second now, he may wake up in an empty bed and not remember a thing.  

  _But you called to me,_  Ben murmurs after a while, when Hux continues to lie there uncertainly, thinking it will shatter the dream if he so much as moves a fingertip.  _I heard it. I purged your mind of everything, and still you called to me, without even knowing who I am._

 They fall silent again. Ben shifts reluctantly, and Hux, aware Ben is about to go, blurts out in his desperation: _What would you give me?_

Ben stills. _What?_

Hux inhales shakily, refusing to believe that he is saying this, painfully aware of it nevertheless. _If- if I said I don't want you to disappear. If I said I've made a mistake, and that I would like to remember you when I wake up._

If he, from some madness of the mind, chose to think of Ben rather than the discipline that has had his loyalty since his birth. Ben might laugh at him for this weakness; Hux would deserve it, for offering to unbalance himself so for a possibility that is so unlikely that it is absurd.

 Ben doesn't. Laugh at him, that is.   _I am powerful,_  he says instead, with the simple certainty of a predator that understands itself.  _I would let you wield me._

 Ben dips them both into a series of memories then, the easiness of the force, the wariness in Luke's eyes that was better than any praise. Overhearing him say to Leia that Ben was perhaps stronger with the force than either Luke himself was or Ben's grandfather had been.

 Luke also said Ben was incomparably more lacking in restraint than them both, and that it would be his downfall one day. Ben obviously didn't mean to show Hux that part. Hux sees it anyway.

  _You could take my downfall and make it your rising,_  Ben suggests, leaning away. He manages to hide most of his anxiousness. Hux can make out the outline of his body, for the dream is brigher now, more lucid. He lifts a hand to Ben's nape and tugs him close so his breath raises goosebumps on Hux's skin.

  _What else would you give me?_ Hux asks, in place of a reply. He can feel Ben's mouth open against his shoulder. Then a tongue flicks out, sweeping along the line of Hux's bones and continuing up his throat in haphazard licks and kisses.

  _Persuasive,_  Hux manages. He bites down on a moan when Ben settles more confidently on him, slotting their hips together. Both of them are suddenly so  _present_  in the otherwise sleep-blurred setting. Hux feels each finger that wraps around his side, hears every hitch in Ben's breath as he starts to roll his hips, rising to a languorous rhythm.

  _Anything you ask,_ Ben pants, a plea. _And everything that you can't bring yourself to ask. I can see them all. I would-_

Hux's lips land somewhere to the left of Ben's mouth. Whatever Ben might have said next is lost as he turns his head to fit their mouths together. Nothing can touch them in this dream, it seems, where they're free to offer things that would sound ludicrous in wakefulness. Hux forgets order as he wraps his legs around Ben's waist; Ben forgets disquiet as he gives over to the simple pleasure that empties both their minds. 

 Hux's subconsciousness is much better illuminated than before when he comes back to his senses. Ben lies half on top of him, running his hand slowly along the ridges of Hux's ribs. Hux lets himself, briefly, to fantasize: both of them in First Order uniforms, Hux the commander, Ben a- a- but no, Ben would never fit into a uniform, much less into a strict system like the First Order's. Both of them rebels, then, but not the lowly ones. Ben as the jedi knight he is now and Hux as a tactician. This, too, feels strange. And what are fantasies to a man such as himself, anyway, who rarely even allows himself to dream freely?

  _And what are those to me,_  Ben thinks quietly, thinking of the unbearable instability that haunts him in reality.

  _You have no need of them,_  Hux says. _I could- I could give you-_  he falters, unsure if he should say,  _I could give you rules,_ or  _I could give you the exact opposite- I could set you free._

_You could give me a future._  Ben says gently, and sits up on the bed.  _I will dream, and you will make it real, and we will live in it together._

 Hux is silenced by these words. He is convinced by them, against better judgment, against the carefully constructed fort of reason that has kept his wishes secluded from himself. Perhaps he sees them now, those wishes. Or at least Ben does. Perhaps Ben can think with certainty a future that Hux wouldn't dare think of as possible, and one day Hux will indeed find himself piloting a small ship to the other side of the galaxy, or watch from his commander's seat as Ben does the same for him.

  _When one of us persuades the other_ , Hux thinks.

  _You and your idea of lines, general,_  Ben says, amused,  _It could just as well be that we'd meet in the middle._

 Ben reaches out with a shapeless hand. Hux can sense the promise in Ben's smile, felt more than seen, more solid than any dream has the right to be. He takes the hand, steps forward blindly- allows Ben to coax him into a vision of a new empire, of a throne and a knight, of the power to carve new lines where somebody else's rules used to reign.

**Author's Note:**

> So this turned out like Emperor Hux: The Beginning, because I have no control over myself.


End file.
